The sweeping anti-union legislation being pushed by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is not about balancing budgets. It is a power grab, part of a calculated effort to undermine what's left of the most significant institutional counter-balance to the ever-weightier political influence of corporations.

I offer some thoughts on the Wisconsin uprising below. As someone with family roots in Wisconsin, and with extended family members who have served as diligent and dedicated teachers in the public schools, I haven't taken kindly to Rush Limbaugh and Tea Party folks calling them "parasites." But I have been proud to see teachers, supporters, allied union members, and students fight back with a series of large-scale protests.

to read Mark Engler's article published in: Dissent Magazine, February 2011, click on